“We cannot say that Putin was re-elected, Putin was reappointed by the Kremlin,” said the spokesperson for the Russia-Libertés association.

Vladimir Putin would be, as of Sunday March 17 at 7:05 p.m., re-elected with 87% of the votes. “There was no election, and there is no result”reacts Nicolas Tenzer, teacher at Sciences Po and specialist in strategic issues. “There is no election to the extent that there was no free candidate, that the opposition candidates were unable to compete, that one of their potential candidates was assassinated by the Russian power, Alexeï Navalny, and that therefore this whole election is a kind of masquerade”.

The teacher at Sciences Po goes further, and believes that officially recognizing the results “from Western leaders” would not have “any sense”. As for the vote, Nicolas Tenzer also denounces the “regular ballot stuffing” and “completely fanciful participation rates”.

“Drawn” figures according to Olga Prokopieva

Olga Prokopieva, spokesperson for the Russia-Libertés association, agrees: “There’s no point announcing any numbers, because they’re drawn numbers.” “We cannot say that Putin was re-elected, Putin was redesignated, reappointed by the Kremlin. (…) This means absolutely nothing for Russia, Putin does not represent the Russian people today”she adds.

According to Olga Prokopieva, the elections are not only falsified “in the counting of votes, which remains totally opaque, without any independent observer present, in addition with the use of electronic voting”but also “because they are not conducted according to the principles of free, direct, equal and secret universal suffrage”. “Today and yesterday there were armed men present in the polling stations, who even entered the voting booth to check what people wrote on the ballot papers”she continues, calling on France “not knowing the results”.